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Advocating for the Melanoma Community on the Hill
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From the desk of Douglas Brodman, Board Chair:
The MRF is once again mobilizing the melanoma community to meet with lawmakers and it could not come at a more critical time. Congress must work together to finalize a federal budget that funds vital programs like the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) skin cancer prevention program or the Melanoma Research Program. Our elected officials must enact permanent telehealth capabilities before the end of the calendar year when pandemic-era provisions are set to expire. Concerningly, our community must champion equitable access to key prevention tools like sunscreen that so many of us assumed would remain available.
This important event is our opportunity as patients, healthcare providers, loved ones, researchers and survivors to speak directly with lawmakers and their staff and advocate on behalf of patients everywhere. Your advocacy at both state and federal levels has had a direct impact on the melanoma community.
Sincerely,
Douglas Brodman
Chair, Board of Directors
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Congress Passes Continuing Resolution to Fund the Government Through March 8
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Since passing an initial continuing resolution to fund the government through November 17 last October, Congress has passed two additional continuing resolutions to fund the federal government at Fiscal Year 2023 levels without major spending cuts to existing programs. Over 180 MRF advocates contacted their members of Congress and urged them to pass an appropriations package to protect melanoma research before the end of the fiscal year.
The most recent continuing resolution funds the government through March 1 for some programs and March 8 for others at which point Congress will need to pass and enact all twelve federal appropriations bills or another continuing resolution.
With our partners, the MRF has urged Congress to pass a federal budgetand avoid a government shutdown, particularly as a delay could impact the operations of federal research programs such as the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) within which lies the currently funded at $40 million.
The MRF will continue to engage lawmakers on the importance of fully funding melanoma research programs and passing a Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations package while avoiding a government shutdown. Sign up to receive our action alerts here.
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Florida Coverage for Skin Cancer Screenings Bill Advances Through Both House and Senate Committees
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As many of our advocates know, early detection of cutaneous melanoma through skin cancer screenings is key to diagnosing cutaneous melanoma in its earliest and most treatable stages. Unfortunately, skin cancer screenings are not routinely covered by insurance without applying a copay, deductible or coinsurance, and that cost barrier means that many patients forgo or delay their screenings.
However, last legislative session, Florida State House Reps. Bobby Payne, Ralph Massullo,and Robin Bartleman along with Florida State Senator Gayle Harrell introduced HB785 and SB142, respectively, which would provide an annual skin cancer screening performed by a dermatologist at no cost to the patient. MRF advocates and our partners were instrumental in ushering the bill through two committees in the State House and all the way to a second reading in the State House before the legislative session ended.
Now, Reps. Payne and Massullo and Sen. Harrell have re-introduced the legislationand the bills are picking up steam in the House and Senate. In the House, HB 241 would require the Florida Department of Management Services to require any contracted state group health insurance plans to provide coverage & payment for annual skin cancer screenings performed by specified persons without imposing any cost-sharing requirement and specifies the requirement for & restriction on payments for such screenings. The bill is narrower in scope than the previous version of the bill, but is making important progress having passed through the Select Committee on Health Innovation in the House and the Banking and Insurance Committee in the Senate. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill are awaiting a hearing with their respective Appropriations Committees.
The MRF will continue to engage on the Coverage for Skin Cancer Screenings Bill next legislative session.
Email advocacy@melanoma.org to find out how you can get involved in this effort or to start a similar initiative in your state.
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MRF Participates in Congressional Briefing for Sunscreen Filters
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Sunscreen remains one of the most important tools we have as melanoma advocates to prevent melanoma and other skin cancers, but for the past two decades, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made minimal progress in bringing advanced and more protective sunscreen filters to market in the United States. That’s why on December 7th, the MRF’s Director of Advocacy, Kim Watkins, joined policy specialists and dermatologists in a briefing to congressional staffers to discuss pathways to improve sun safety measures, promote sunscreen protection and close the gap with global UV protection standards to reduce the rise of skin cancer incidence in the United States.
Unlike most countries, the United States regulates sunscreen as a drug not a cosmetic product. As a result, sunscreen filters are approved slowly and with extra testing and clinical trial requirements compared to the rest of the world. While that system should function to keep Americans safe, it also results in a backlog of sunscreen filter applications and added cost to manufacturers with no real path forward to approval. In 2014, Congress worked with the FDA to craft the Sunscreen Innovation Act with the intention of removing some of the regulatory burdens to speed the sunscreen approval process by allowing filters to come to market under a designation known as GRASE, or generally recognized as safe and effective.
Unfortunately, the FDA still has not approved new sunscreens, even with a clear path towards approving new filters. Additionally, the FDA is also using the provisions of the Sunscreen Innovation Act to retroactively review already approved sunscreen filters. In 2019, the FDA issued a proposed order that, if finalized, could lead to further scientific review of 12 sunscreen filters already on the market and fully remove two, meaning that the United States will only have two FDA-approved sunscreen filters unless manufacturers are able to fund animal studies for ingredients that have been safely used in humans for decades.
At the invitation of the Personal Care Products Council, the MRF joined the Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus and other experts in the fields of sunscreen and skin cancer to express concerns that the FDA’s proposed rule will further widen the gap in the number of available sunscreen filter formulations between the US and other countries, erode public trust in public health interventions, and result in even wider health disparities as people of color and rural or low income communities struggle to find sunscreens appropriate to their skin tone or afford the sunscreens available on the market.
The MRF will continue to engage the FDA on this issue and work towards solutions for all Americans. To view the press release issued by Congressman Dave Joyce’s (OH-14), Co-Chair of the Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus, office visit here.
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Upcoming Events
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Advocacy Days: March 3 - 5 in Washington, DC
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1420 K Street, NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20005 | Tel: (800) 673-1290
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